Android image caching

Question

And now the punchline: use the system cache.

URL url = new URL(strUrl);
URLConnection connection = url.openConnection();
connection.setUseCaches(true);
Object response = connection.getContent();
if (response instanceof Bitmap) {
  Bitmap bitmap = (Bitmap)response;
} 

Provides both memory and flash-rom cache, shared with the browser.

grr. I wish somebody had told ME that before i wrote my own cache manager.

Regarding the elegant connection.setUseCaches solution above: sadly, it won't work without some additional effort. You will need to install a ResponseCache using ResponseCache.setDefault. Otherwise, HttpURLConnection will silently ignore the setUseCaches(true) bit.

See the comments at the top of FileResponseCache.java for details:

http://libs-for-android.googlecode.com/svn/reference/com/google/android/filecache/FileResponseCache.html

(I'd post this in a comment, but I apparently don't have enough SO karma.)

Convert them into Bitmaps and then either store them in a Collection(HashMap,List etc.) or you can write them on the SDcard.

When storing them in application space using the first approach, you might want to wrap them around a java.lang.ref.SoftReference specifically if their numbers is large (so that they are garbage collected during crisis). This could ensue a Reload though.

HashMap<String,SoftReference<Bitmap>> imageCache =
        new HashMap<String,SoftReference<Bitmap>>();

writing them on SDcard will not require a Reload; just a user-permission.

Use LruCache to cache images efficiently. You can read about LruCache from Android Developer site

I've used below solution for Images download and caching in android. You can follow steps below:

STEP 1: make Class Named ImagesCache. I've used Singleton object for this class

import android.graphics.Bitmap;
import android.support.v4.util.LruCache;

public class ImagesCache 
{
    private  LruCache<String, Bitmap> imagesWarehouse;

    private static ImagesCache cache;

    public static ImagesCache getInstance()
    {
        if(cache == null)
        {
            cache = new ImagesCache();
        }

        return cache;
    }

    public void initializeCache()
    {
        final int maxMemory = (int) (Runtime.getRuntime().maxMemory() /1024);

        final int cacheSize = maxMemory / 8;

        System.out.println("cache size = "+cacheSize);

        imagesWarehouse = new LruCache<String, Bitmap>(cacheSize)
                {
                    protected int sizeOf(String key, Bitmap value) 
                    {
                        // The cache size will be measured in kilobytes rather than number of items.

                        int bitmapByteCount = value.getRowBytes() * value.getHeight();

                        return bitmapByteCount / 1024;
                    }
                };
    }

    public void addImageToWarehouse(String key, Bitmap value)
    {       
        if(imagesWarehouse != null && imagesWarehouse.get(key) == null)
        {
            imagesWarehouse.put(key, value);
        }
    }

    public Bitmap getImageFromWarehouse(String key)
    {
        if(key != null)
        {
            return imagesWarehouse.get(key);
        }
        else
        {
            return null;
        }
    }

    public void removeImageFromWarehouse(String key)
    {
        imagesWarehouse.remove(key);
    }

    public void clearCache()
    {
        if(imagesWarehouse != null)
        {
            imagesWarehouse.evictAll();
        }       
    }

}

STEP 2:

make another class named DownloadImageTask which is used if bitmap is not available in cache it will download it from here:

public class DownloadImageTask extends AsyncTask<String, Void, Bitmap>
{   
    private int inSampleSize = 0;

    private String imageUrl;

    private BaseAdapter adapter;

    private ImagesCache cache;

    private int desiredWidth, desiredHeight;

    private Bitmap image = null;

    private ImageView ivImageView;

    public DownloadImageTask(BaseAdapter adapter, int desiredWidth, int desiredHeight) 
    {
        this.adapter = adapter;

        this.cache = ImagesCache.getInstance();

        this.desiredWidth = desiredWidth;

        this.desiredHeight = desiredHeight;
    }

    public DownloadImageTask(ImagesCache cache, ImageView ivImageView, int desireWidth, int desireHeight)
    {
        this.cache = cache;

        this.ivImageView = ivImageView;

        this.desiredHeight = desireHeight;

        this.desiredWidth = desireWidth;
    }

    @Override
    protected Bitmap doInBackground(String... params) 
    {
        imageUrl = params[0];

        return getImage(imageUrl);
    }

    @Override
    protected void onPostExecute(Bitmap result) 
    {
        super.onPostExecute(result);

        if(result != null)
        {
            cache.addImageToWarehouse(imageUrl, result);

            if(ivImageView != null)
            {
                ivImageView.setImageBitmap(result);
            }
            else if(adapter != null)
            {
                adapter.notifyDataSetChanged();
            }
        }
    }

    private Bitmap getImage(String imageUrl)
    {   
        if(cache.getImageFromWarehouse(imageUrl) == null)
        {
            BitmapFactory.Options options = new BitmapFactory.Options();

            options.inJustDecodeBounds = true;

            options.inSampleSize = inSampleSize;

            try
            {
                URL url = new URL(imageUrl);

                HttpURLConnection connection = (HttpURLConnection)url.openConnection();

                InputStream stream = connection.getInputStream();

                image = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(stream, null, options);

                int imageWidth = options.outWidth;

                int imageHeight = options.outHeight;

                if(imageWidth > desiredWidth || imageHeight > desiredHeight)
                {   
                    System.out.println("imageWidth:"+imageWidth+", imageHeight:"+imageHeight);

                    inSampleSize = inSampleSize + 2;

                    getImage(imageUrl);
                }
                else
                {   
                    options.inJustDecodeBounds = false;

                    connection = (HttpURLConnection)url.openConnection();

                    stream = connection.getInputStream();

                    image = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(stream, null, options);

                    return image;
                }
            }

            catch(Exception e)
            {
                Log.e("getImage", e.toString());
            }
        }

        return image;
    }

STEP 3: Usage from your Activity or Adapter

Note: If you want to load image from url from Activity Class. Use the second Constructor of DownloadImageTask, but if you want to display image from Adapter use first Constructor of DownloadImageTask (for example you have a image in ListView and you are setting image from 'Adapter')

USAGE FROM ACTIVITY:

ImageView imv = (ImageView) findViewById(R.id.imageView);
ImagesCache cache = ImagesCache.getInstance();//Singleton instance handled in ImagesCache class.
cache.initializeCache();

String img = "your_image_url_here";

Bitmap bm = cache.getImageFromWarehouse(img);

if(bm != null)
{
  imv.setImageBitmap(bm);
}
else
{
  imv.setImageBitmap(null);

  DownloadImageTask imgTask = new DownloadImageTask(cache, imv, 300, 300);//Since you are using it from `Activity` call second Constructor.

  imgTask.execute(img);
}

USAGE FROM ADAPTER:

ImageView imv = (ImageView) rowView.findViewById(R.id.imageView);
ImagesCache cache = ImagesCache.getInstance();
cache.initializeCache();

String img = "your_image_url_here";

Bitmap bm = cache.getImageFromWarehouse(img);

if(bm != null)
{
  imv.setImageBitmap(bm);
}
else
{
  imv.setImageBitmap(null);

  DownloadImageTask imgTask = new DownloadImageTask(this, 300, 300);//Since you are using it from `Adapter` call first Constructor.

  imgTask.execute(img);
}

Note:

cache.initializeCache() you can use this statement in the very first Activity of your application. Once you've initialized the cache you would never need to initialized it every time if you are using ImagesCache instance.

I am never good at explaining things but hope this will help the beginners that how to cache using LruCache and its usage :)

EDIT:

Now a days there are very famous libraries known as Picasso and Glide which can be used to load images very efficiently in android app. Try this very simple and usefull library Picasso for android and Glide For Android. You do not need to worry about cache images.

Picasso allows for hassle-free image loading in your application—often in one line of code!

Glide, just like Picasso, can load and display images from many sources, while also taking care of caching and keeping a low memory impact when doing image manipulations. It has been used by official Google apps (like the app for Google I/O 2015) and is just as popular as Picasso. In this series, we're going to explore the differences and advantages of Glide over Picasso.

You can also visit blog for difference between Glide and Picasso

To download an image and save to the memory card you can do it like this.

//First create a new URL object 
URL url = new URL("http://www.google.co.uk/logos/holiday09_2.gif")

//Next create a file, the example below will save to the SDCARD using JPEG format
File file = new File("/sdcard/example.jpg");

//Next create a Bitmap object and download the image to bitmap
Bitmap bitmap = BitmapFactory.decodeStream(url.openStream());

//Finally compress the bitmap, saving to the file previously created
bitmap.compress(CompressFormat.JPEG, 100, new FileOutputStream(file));

Don't forget to add the Internet permission to your manifest:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET" />

I would consider using droidfu's image cache. It implements both an in-memory and disk-based image cache. You also get a WebImageView that takes advantage of the ImageCache library.

Here is the full description of droidfu and WebImageView: http://brainflush.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/droid-fu-part-2-webimageview-and-webgalleryadapter/